Damage to the brand has been immense, but at least VW is now taking concerns seriously.

Volkswagen: long road ahead

As far as PR disasters go the recent media coverage surrounding the spate of quality and safety concerns with Volkswagens has been a beauty.

The proud German brand that has spent decades building a reputation for engineering prowess and being a step above rivals has been bruised and battered from a public outcry over multiple failures and the way the company has handled them.

The extent of the damage to the brand - which looks set to not only impact sales but also, potentially, the value of cars already in the market - remains to be seen, although it's difficult to imagine there won't be a backlash.

For now dealers are busy - flat out in fact - but in the wrong places. Service departments have for months been busy repairing cars, something that has stepped up a gear in the last two weeks, while the recent onslaught of bad publicity is almost certain to have reduced showroom traffic.

But the damage to the brand goes back a lot further than two weeks, something that is becoming clearer from the scores of customers that continue to contact Fairfax Media.

Other than the substantial engine and transmission failures that are surprisingly common, a common complaint from owners has been how dealers have either misdiagnosed problems or failed to acknowledge their existence.

Not that it's necessarily the fault of the dealer. Modern cars self diagnose, at least with major mechanical and electrical issues, so once a car is plugged into a diagnostics computer it can usually direct a mechanic to the faulty components.

But from the reports Fairfax has received there are a number of cars that have failed to log a fault code on their onboard computer. Many owners also report costly failures soon after the car's warranty has expired, leaving repair bills exceeding $10,000, in some cases effectively rendering the car a write-off.

None of this is news to dealers.

Volkswagen clearly knew there was discontent with owners. Late last year Volkswagen quietly extended the warranty on its transmissions to five years, even backdating it to owners who'd bought cars in 2009.

Fairfax has been told dealers have consistently held stock for components for more than 20 of the apparently fragile DSG gearboxes. But it was too little too late, something that can also be said of the until-now lacklustre response in the past two weeks.

It was only a month ago that Volkswagen was standing firm on calls to recall its controversial DSG automatic transmission in Australia, arguing the recalls in China and Japan were for transmissions built in a different plant or to account for different climates and driving conditions.

While it's admirable they've finally recalled Australian cars, it's only the start of a long road.

Next step is addressing the engine failures that can apparently leave owners with no power at speed. It's understood Volkswagen's German headquarters is working hard to diagnose the concerns, which appear to have been highlighted in Australia but must surely impact many other countries.

However sources tell us there are issues trying to identify the cause of the problems, something that won't help the hundreds of Australian owners who've experienced such issues.